Page 70 of Duke of Chaos

Ezra felt his wall of numbness and his newfound emotions slam together violently; waging a war as to how he should react.

“We need him alive,” Ambrose warned, taking a step toward them.

“Whatdid you just say to him?” Duncan asked, his tone deadly as he glared at George.

“You ruined her life. Both of you,” George went on, not breaking his stare from Ezra.

The hatred in his gaze began to shift into sadness and despair.

“She was a beautiful woman once. Pure, inside and out,” George went on, his voice beginning to tremble. “She was mine before your father made that deal with her.”

Ezra’s heart stopped.

“What deal?”

A pathetic laugh left George’s bloodied lips.

“You should know. You made the same one with your own wife.”

Bile burned in Ezra’s throat as his mind began to unravel.No.

“Sophia was…magnificent.Beautiful, kind, and humble; her patience and manners were beyond reproach. She came from wealth and it showed in her dress and presence, but she never forced it into conversation like so many do. Everyone fell in love with her when they met her,everyone.And yet somehow, she loved me.

“That is until your father discovered her. No one at that time knew how much debt he was accruing or that he had a black heart; he hid them both under his handsome looks and charm. Sophia fell for him at once, heart and soul, and I lost her.”

“Someone better than you came along,” Duncan said bitterly.

He had stopped straining against Ezra and Morgan’s hold, and now the three of them stood frozen and stared down at their fathers’ murderer.

“He used her!” George snarled, “He took everything good about her and drained her of it until she was a vain, useless husk. Years later, when she offered to share her bed with me, I felt as if itwere my chance to rescue her, to take her away and breathe the old Sophia back into her body.”

George paused, his face crumpling as he shook his head.

“She was still so beautiful,” he whispered, then gritted his teeth. “But she had become so cold and cruel. She loved to watch me plead for her to leave him; smiling pitifully at me the whole time like I was a helpless bird stuck in her claws.”

“I do not need to hear of my mother’s conquests,” Ezra stated, not able to take any more. “I do not share much with you, but I will attest to my mother’s cruelty.”

“You don’t know a thing,boy,”George laughed bitterly. “After you were born? When she saw she had given birth to such a cold, lifelessthing,that was what truly broke her.”

“So, you could have killed me back then,” Ezra said coldly, “Why wait until now if you have hated me since my birth?”

George grunted.

“Because as much as I hated you I could not blame a child. Your mother loved your father, but he never loved her, and somehow part of me knew that would become evident after your birth. You seemed doomed to repeat your father’s life and that seemed like punishment enough,” he replied.

“How kind,” Ezra retorted blandly.

“Then I heard you were getting married to one of Owen Knight’s girls. One was in love with the son of another friend of mine. I saw everything that had happened start all over again and IknewI could not let history repeat itself. It was only after I tried to come at you the first time that I discovered that my original information was incorrect, but at that point, I did not care. You needed to die, just as your father did.”

Coldness poured into Ezra, filling him from foot to head. Being told that he deserved to die did not bother him. It was the possibility that George was right. That had always been his fear, had it not? That he was twisting Lydia into something as dark and wretched as himself?

He could not imagine his mother being kind or pure to any degree, but up until a few days ago, he would never have imagined Lydia sweetly threatening to stab a woman either.

“Look at that,” George chuckled wickedly, “You know it is true. I see it in your eyes, boy,”

Ezra slowly raised his eyes back up to George as he felt his body move forward of its own volition, but he was caught by all three of his friends.

“We now have enough to make a formal arrest,” Ambrose said, his tone full of authority as he held Ezra’s right shoulder tightly. “I think it is time we let him shut up.”

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